Mental health issues in Nepal discussed at the Bangkok Summit

Kathmandu – Youth Co:Lab 2023 Summit in Bangkok invited social entrepreneurs, policy makers, government and enablers across different UN agencies from the Asia Pacific region. The summit was a call for support to young entrepreneurs working towards solving SDGs.

Social entrepreneur Shreeya Giri, founder of Happy Minds, represented Nepal in the summit. Ms Giri was given the opportunity to speak in events to share what encouraged her to start the initiative, the mental health status of Nepalese around the world, and what is her organisation doing to solve the issue.

Happy Minds (www.happyminds.health) — a mental health and wellbeing platform– provides mental health awareness and provides a platform to connect with mental health professionals serving since in 2021. Over the past two-years, the platform has served over 45,000 Nepali people across 7 provinces and 17 nations. Connecting a diverse pool of counsellors, her team has done remarkable work to bring mental health awareness in the workplace and community.

In her presentation, Shreeya called for collaboration and support to improve policy, strategies and resources to improve mental healthcare for Nepali people. She underlined the importance of non-traditional partnerships to foster an encouraging environment for social enterprises like Happy Minds. She also spoke about Nepali migrant worker’s mental health, issues on postpartum depression, and increasing suicide cases in the community.

One study, published in the journal PLOS ONE in 2022, found that the annual increase in the suicide rate in Nepal from 2019 to 2020 was 16%, which was more than three times higher than the year-on-year increase from 2018 to 2019. The study also found that the increase in suicides was particularly pronounced among young people and women.

“The Covid 19 has highlighted the need for collaboration and sharing of expertise and resources to combat challenges like mental health and I would like to call upon you all to join our hands. We are all in it together,” she said.

The event was supported by UNDP, Citi Foundation and the Commonwealth, among others. The participants took time out to hear from more than 15 social entrepreneurs working in different sectors.